In the manufacture of wire and cable products, such products are generally fabricated in long substantially continuous lengths which are intermediately placed on large reels. The product is subsequently cut into shorter lengths and packaged in craft or corrugated paper boxes or containers for distribution to the ultimate user. Since the products being packaged vary in both diameter and length, containers of many different sizes are utilized. It is also normal industry practice to mark these containers with markers to identify the containers' contents immediately after a product is packaged. This substantially continuous process occurs as containers pass a marking station immediately after they are filled. Modern packaging and inventorying methods typically require the use of coded labels on containers or boxes when automated handling and storage systems are used. These label codes are read by machines which scan selected areas of a container surface and react to the data found thereon directing the machine to store or retrieve the containers. Problems stem from the fact that many different sizes of boxes or containers are used. Since a reader or scanner must read a clear and uncluttered image, the label or identifying mark must be properly located on the face of a box in an otherwise unmarked area. The use of both large and small boxes which constantly pass a marking station typically requires frequent adjustment of a printer head in order for such marker to apply the identifying markings to an unmarked area on the surface of a given box size and configuration. Since the boxes used to package various products differ greatly in size and markings, the placement of the identifying mark on the boxes is not constant from product to product. It is therefore desirable to be able to move and align the head that applies the identifying markings onto the boxes or containers when the box configuration changes, without having to use specialized tools and equipment or to call on specially developed mechanical skills. Prior to the present invention, no such method or device existed in the market place.
Heretofore, properly aligning the identification markings on a box or container required complicated adjustments of the marking head. These adjustments required the use of many tools and also required a significant degree of skill on the part of an operator or mechanic to properly adjust the marking equipment such that the identifying codes being applied t the above described boxes and containers were properly placed. The marking machine had to be painstakingly "set up" for each size and configuration of container to be marked and the process had to be repeated whenever a container size changed and the previously set position for the mark no longer worked. This adjustment process required the packaging machine as well as the marking machine to be idle while such adjustments were made. The resulting downtime reduced the capacity for filling and marking the boxes or containers and correspondingly increased the cost of operation.